What is quirks mode?

Question

In a lot of articles about design, quirks mode is mentioned. Anybody have an idea about this thing in plain text and in a development prospective?

Answer 1

you can read in this links :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quirks_mode

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/quirksmode.html

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/quirks-mode.html

Modern browsers generally try to render HTML content according to the W3C recommendations. However, to provide compatibility with older web pages, and to provide additional "intuitive" functionality, all browsers support an alternative "quirks mode".

Quirks mode is not, however, a standard. The rendering of any page in quirks mode in different browsers may be different. Whenever possible, it is better to adhere to the W3C standards and try and avoid depending on any past or present browser quirks.

Generally, quirks mode is turned on when there is no correct DOCTYPE declaration, and turned off when there is a DOCTYPE definition. However, invalid HTML - with respect to the chosen DOCTYPE - can also cause the browser to switch to quirks mode.

More information on the different quirks modes in different browsers can be found at QuirksMode.org